The circumstances of Stonehenge's creation are lost to the mists of time, but the odds are that they were less convoluted than the saga around the building of a visitor's center for the ancient site. Nearly two decades after amenities were originally planned for the English ruin, an elaborately stylized design approved by local councilmen has attracted harsh criticism from the architectural community.

Conceived by Australian architecture firm Denton Corker Marshall, the $31–million building would essentially be a modernist box overhung by a broad sun canopy on spindly pillars. CABE, Britain's Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, has led opposition to the plan on the grounds that it would distract from the ancient site's iconic environment. "We question whether, in this landscape of scale and huge horizons and with a very robust end point that has stood for centuries and centuries, this is the right design approach?" Diane Haigh, CABE's director of design review, told the Guardian. "You need to feel you are approaching Stonehenge. You want the sense you are walking over Salisbury Plain towards the stones."

Other objections include that the perforated sun canopy will provide scant shelter from the elements on the exposed site, and that the the "twee little winding paths" leading up to the monument would be "more appropriate for an urban garden."

Denton Corker Marshall has defended the planned structure as an innocuous addition to the 5,000-year-old site that would serve the more than 800,000 visitors it welcomes every year. "It's not an iconic masterpiece," firm architect Stephen Quinlan said of the design. "It's a facility to help you appreciate the Stonehenge landscape. It's intellectually deferential in a big, big way to Stonehenge as a monument. ... I wouldn't even mind if you couldn't remember what the building looked like when you left."

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